posted July 20, 2009 18:01
An Open Letter to Moon Landing Conspiracy Theorists

I've followed all the moon landing conspiracy articles/books/videos/etc. for years, but one thing always puzzles me: though they question how difficult it would be to actually go to the moon, no one ever explains in detail how an agency like NASA could actually pull off such a massive hoax and keep it quiet. I believe the latter is actually less plausible than landing on the moon.

If you examine the logistics of claims such as planning for and staging a moonwalk in a studio, or launching and remotely controlling an unmanned Apollo/Saturn 5, or simulating radio transmissions being broadcast from the moon and lunar orbit knowing full well that both amateur radio enthusiasts and foreign countries are all monitoring these...and look at the 1960's hardware and software necessary for this...and when you consider how many contractor personnel would have to be involved in all aspects of this hoax over an extended period of time, all of whom would have to keep quiet about the respective parts they played...and then consider what it would take to script and choreograph such a massive production involving hundreds of people (at a minimum) over days or weeks...and do all this several times over four years...you gradually reach the conclusion that it would probably be easier to actually go to the moon than to successfully fabricate and cover-up several faked landings.

Whether one believes NASA's claims or not, the explanation of "how we landed on the moon" has been covered in extraordinary detail over the years, down to timelines and engineering designs of the hardware used. My request to conspiracy theorists is: If you want me to believe that man never landed on the moon, you need to provide credible evidence that it was even possible to orchestrate such a massive and complex hoax. Every explanation I've seen thus far merely arm-waves the "how" of such an extraordinary endeavor, ignoring such things as who (which agencies and contractors) and how many people would have to be involved, cost, technical challenges, and the incredible amount of strategic planning necessary to not only do this, but to appear that they are doing something else.

Have any of you seen any detailed explanations of the logistics involved in pulling off a lunar landing and moonwalk hoax and successful cover-up? Having worked as an engineer in the aerospace industry during the 70's (including spacecraft projects), I just don't see such a hoax as "do-able". All things considered, one of the strongest arguments in favor of man having actually landed on the moon is that, for all its complexity, it would have been relatively easier than successfully faking it.

[minor edit - 7/21/09]

--------------------We must be the change we want to see in the world. -Mahatma GhandiPosts: 330 | From: the Great State of Confusion | Registered: Sep 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Tech Angel:I've followed all the moon landing conspiracy articles/books/videos/etc. for years, but one thing always puzzles me: though they question how difficult it would be to actually go to the moon, no one ever explains in detail how an agency like NASA could actually pull off such a massive hoax and keep it quiet.

But they didn't keep it quiet, there's plenty of web sites exposing the many glaring mistakes in the fake evidence. Only brainwashed sheeple like me fall for it, Clear Thinkers like the guy at the desk next to me, see through it all very easily.

The only real mystery is, why were they so ham-fisted in their fabrication of the evidence?

Why did they run around the film set in the Nevada Desert painting little cross-hairs on the rocks? Wouldn't it have been easier to just use a camera with a cross-hair mask built in?

And why did they leave an empty coke-bottle lying around on the set? Didn't they have a continuity person on-set?

And why did they paint fake shadows onto the ground, when it would have been so much easier to just shine a single light on the set and create real shadows?

--------------------If you watch 'The History Of NASA' backwards, it's about a space agency that has no manned spaceflight capability, then does low-orbit flights, then lands on the Moon.Posts: 10681 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Oct 2002
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--------------------There are three things you can be sure of in life: Death, taxes, and reading about fake illnesses online...Posts: 9334 | From: Westchester County, New York | Registered: May 2001
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I think Harrison Schmitt's comments at the end summed up my biggest underlying issue about the whole "moon hoax" thing: the deteriorating state of science and math education in the U.S. The theories being put forth to "prove" we never went to the moon lead me to believe that kids today, and even adults, get most of their understanding about science and technology from TV and the movies. When confronted by real science, they don't believe it because it conflicts with what they already "know".

--------------------We must be the change we want to see in the world. -Mahatma GhandiPosts: 330 | From: the Great State of Confusion | Registered: Sep 2001
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In the end, I think the doubt comes from the fact that this is one of man's great achievements and this one is more intanglible and ethereal. The pyramids or the great wall of china, or what an atom bomb does, these can be measured. The first two can be touched. There are a thousand instances every day of how we control electricity.

But landing on the moon, this cannot be grasped by every man. 40 years later and you cannot just go to your local space port and catch the next ship to luna colony one.

5000 years ago, how many people would have belieevd that pyramids could be built unless they saw them themselves.

--------------------"If they're not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and violent extremists, then why should I take the time to distinguish between decent, fearful white people and racists?"

posted July 21, 2009 05:39
_________________ Was I in on the duping of the world? _________________

____ If so I was never told, that it was a hoax. The three guys from AP-8 sure looked like they had spent eight days with out a razor. They did not walk well, once on deck. So if the total Apollo program had to be a hoax, including the death of the three on the pad, so then to this skeptic it was well played. So Pres. Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon all would have to played along, different parties agreeing to the same hoax.

posted July 21, 2009 09:36
I doubt any of the conspiracy theorists had to pull astronauts out of the water.

--------------------And it's one, two, three / On the wrong side of the lee / What were you meant for? / What were you meant for?- The DecemberistsPosts: 7670 | From: the lab | Registered: Mar 2001
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